Meet Duane and Ronda Meier

Robotic Technology Allows Dairy Family to Get Back to Basics 

Adopting the latest technologies has given the Meier family the opportunity to go back to basics on their Kansas dairy farm.  

Duane and Ronda Meier and four of their five children own and operate Meier Dairy near Palmer in north central Kansas. Duane is a third generation dairy farmer who has milked cows on the family’s farm his entire life.  

In 2015, the Meiers were the first dairy in Kansas to install robotic milking machines. They also have one of the larger herds in the country that’s made the switch to robotics. They installed 12 machines to milk their 635 cows. Their decision was driven by the difficulty in finding enough employees to help with milking and other chores. However, the family has found a number of other benefits after making the transition. 

Caring for Cows 

“We live in a very rural area and labor is hard to find and keep. We knew our children wanted to remain part of the dairy, but in order for that to happen, we needed to find a way to get the cows milked daily and more often,” Ronda said. “Moving to robots has actually allowed us to put our main focus back to caring for the cows instead of managing people, and it has given each family member a chance to focus on what they enjoy and are best at.” 

The Meiers have two freestall barns for their milking herd that feature open stalls with sand bedding, ventilation fans, and access to feed and water 24 hours a day. The barns were originally built in 1997 and retrofitted with six robotic milkers each that cows can visit throughout the day.  

“We’ve noticed that the cows are even calmer and quieter in the barns because they are able to follow their own schedule for eating, milking and resting,” said Ronda. “We’ve also seen that each cow’s personalities have really come out. Some will come up and meet us or follow us around when we walk through pens to check cows each day.”  

How the Robotic Milking Technology Works 

Each cow wears a collar with a transmitter so that the computer system recognizes her and tracks how many times she is milked and her milk production.  

“We are able to check on each cow’s performance whenever we’d like,” said Ronda, noting that an alert is sent if a cow doesn’t visit the robot for 8 hours so that she can be “fetched” and brought to the milker. 

Cows also get feed pellets when they visit the milking machine, so some cows return multiple times throughout a day. However, the computer recognizes them and only allows them to be milked or given feed pellets up to 6 times a day. 

Duane and Ronda Meier expanded their dairy herd from 80 cows to 500 cows in 1997 and built a new milking parlor and barns. 

A Family Dairy Farm 

“We had not intended for the kids to all come back to the dairy, but knew we had to make it possible in case they did,” she said. “Now that four children are a part of the dairy, we recognize all have strengths and weaknesses and we can choose areas where we are the strongest.”  

Duane does the feeding and is the overall manager of the dairy, and Ronda is the calf manager, feeding and caring for calves up to 350 pounds. Their oldest daughter, Amanda, is an assistant herdsman. Sons Dusty and Tony are herdsmen, and Tony owns 60 head of Jersey cows that have joined the primarily Holstein herd. And, their son Micah is responsible for bedding in the barns, helps care for calves, and is known as the person who can “fix anything broken” on the farm.  

Duane and Ronda have six grandchildren who all live within several miles of the dairy farm. Their youngest daughter, Sami, is a student at Kansas State University and is studying pre-med with a goal of being a physician’s assistant.